Leave Out All The Rest
by Inferna Firesword
Summary: When all else fails, can you reach out to your sworn enemy, in hopes of stopping some mad scheme? Songfic; takes place in Karda Nui in Book 11. Maybe a bit of Krika/Gali if you squint hard enough. Rated T just to be safe.


This songfic came to mind after I heard Linkin Park's song "Leave Out All The Rest." For me, it was love at first listen, and after I used Wikipedia to learn more about it (See? There _is_ a use for it after all!), the song seems to be talking about a person seeking redemption, or regretting things they had done. That sounded very much like the character of Makuta Krika, and I composed this songfic in result.

**Disclaimer:** Last time I checked, I didn't own Lego or Linkin Park. And a lot of the content from this is taken word-for-word from The Final Battle, which belongs to GregF. I own nothing. So boo. *pouts*

Leave Out All The Rest

_I dreamed I was missing,_

_You were so scared._

_But no one would listen,_

'_Cause no one else cared . . ._

Echoes of battle traveled across the stagnant swamp water in the core of the universe, Karda Nui. They bounced off of the twisted trees and called up images of powerful forces locked in an epic battle, fighting for two different causes: one for freedom, the other for greed and power.

Two members of those sides, one from each, could be seen flying just above the brown-green muck, one of them carrying the other. The sight of a bone-white mutated Makuta carrying a weakened Toa of Water might have raised some eyebrows from observers, had they been around to see it.

Gali, weakened as she was from the touch of the Makuta who had captured her, had no chance to fly away from him, and anyway Krika was much stronger than she was, even when he was mostly intangible. Even though she yearned to be away from here, away from the cold grasp of the insect-like being, her curiosity and current weakness made her unable to heed her wish.

Krika was wondering why he was even bothering with this. Most Toa he had encountered over the millennia were so single-mindedly noble they wouldn't listen to anything from a Makuta, someone they were against. A sliver of false hope on his part? Maybe. Maybe he was putting too much stock in the stories about Gali Nuva: how she would listen to enemies and allies alike. Maybe that was a lie, and his efforts to stop Teridax's Plan were doomed from the start.

But he could still try.

_After my dreaming_

_I woke with this fear:_

_What am I leaving_

_When I'm done here?_

Krika finally spotted his destination: a small, muddy islet, barely noticeable or important amongst the many other places like this one, unless you knew what to look for and what it hid. Which he did.

He glided in carefully for a landing, and released Gali. It was a risk to let her leave his grasp; she might fly away before he could present his case, or worse, just attack him outright. But she just lay there, sprawled out in the mud, gold eyes fixed on him. The white Makuta was glad that she didn't flee, though maybe he had weakened her too much for her to actually do that. He just decided to get on with it and tell her.

"We weren't always like this," he said, voice filling with remorse as he remembered. Before Teridax's Plan had come into being, he and the other Makuta had worked to aid Mata Nui. Ah, ignorance had been bliss indeed, before they had left Destral and found out how the universe thought of them.

"I know," she said, and a flash of surprise filled him, though he took care not to let it show on his hideous face. Did she already know?

"The swamp water must have mutated –" she continued, and the surprise was overshadowed by irritation. Did she really think he was that vain? Even so, he couldn't hold that irritation for long; the memories were potent enough for that.

"I'm not talking about how we look. I'm talking about what we are. A piece of advice, Toa," he said, a small threat and warning subtly entering his voice and mingling with the sadness, "If you keep focusing on the now, there isn't going to be any later."

_So if you're asking me _

_I want you to know . . ._

Krika floated off the ground as he turned insubstantial again. "There was a time, back when Makuta Miserix led us,that the Brotherhood stood for something. Oh, you would not remember him – you were asleep at the time," he added, sliding in a slight tone of remorse as he thought of that great leader, "but he embraced our true mission. Under his guidance, we created Rahi beasts that are still of use to the Matoran today." There was real regret in his voice as he reminisced on those days, and Gali's eyes widened as she heard it.

"When the Matoran Civil War happened on Metru Nui, it was Miserix who decreed we Makuta must get more involved in the world outside our laboratories. That was the beginning of the end."

_When my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done,_

_Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed._

_And don't resent me, and when you're feeling empty,_

_Keep me in your memory_

_Leave out all the rest_

_Leave out all the rest . . ._

"When we saw the universe beyond our towers, we discovered how Mata Nui was honored, respected, and loved by the Matoran," continued the Makuta, floating a little lower so Gali wasn't tempted to flee. "That was love and devotion we felt we deserved for the thousands of things we had done to better their lives." Even thought this realization had come years before the Toa before him had awakened, an edge of age-old bitterness curled Krika's voice as the words left his mouth. "Jealousy turned to resentment, and resentment to hate. And when Makuta Teridax proposed we strike at Mata Nui and seize power, we turned away from Miserix and followed his lead."

Gali was a bit astonished as she heard the emotion that suffused Krika as he recollected what had gone on before. She had expected him to be like all the other Makuta – Gorast, Antroz, Teridax – but he was showing remorse for the actions that had gone on before. "And what happened to Miserix?" she asked, feeling like an inquisitive student in a Ga-Metru school as she spoke to him.

"Teridax wanted to kill him," the Makuta told her. "Makuta Spiriah and I were given the job, but Spirah" – he made a derisive noise in the back of his throat that told Gali he didn't think highly of the Makuta in question – "didn't have the stomach for killing mask to mask. I told him I would handle it, but I brought Miserix to a volcanic island in the south and imprisoned him there." There was a small hint of shameful pride in his voice he did not try and conceal; even then he had been showing his dislike of the Plan.

_Don't be afraid_

_I've taken my beating,_

_I've shared what I've made . . ._

Gali seemed to shrink backwards, but he wasn't sure what was making her act that way, when she had seemed so interested in what she was saying earlier. Then he realized that it was his power of fear that was making her shy away from him. Cursing in his head, he lessened the feeling, and she relaxed.

"So you disobeyed," she said, and the surprise in her voice made him irritated again; was it so hard to believe that he wasn't like Bitil, Gorast, or Antroz? "I didn't think Makuta had the spines to do that."

_I'm strong on the surface,_

_Not all the way through._

_I've never been prefect,_

_But neither have you . . ._

Krika shrugged, making his shape ripple like the surface of a pool of water that had gotten a stone thrown in it. "Maybe we don't. If the volcanoes erupt with enough force and for enough time, Miserix won't have a hope of survival. All I did was give him a chance."

As he spoke, Krika became solid again and landed on the ground again, his cold rippling over the Toa of Water like her own waves. He searched the mud at his feet for the thing he had hidden here in case he had gotten a chance for this, and finally found it.

"As I now give you one."

_So if you're asking me_

_I want you to know . . ._

Krika pushed the object through the thick, slimy mud. It was a Brotherhood tablet of transit, something Gali discovered when she washed it off.

"With that, anyone, even you, can pass unharmed through the forces of the Brotherhood," the Makuta told her, urgency filling his voice as he spoke. "Take it. I'll lead you to an exit from this place. Go anywhere that is not here, Gali, if you value your universe."

_When my time comes_

_Forget the wrong that I've done,_

_Help me leave behind some_

_Reasons to be missed . . ._

Gali looked back up at him, suspicion coloring her eyes and tone. "If you want me gone, why don't you just kill me? You have the power to do that."

A smile covered the insect-like Makuta's face. "The Makuta have a legend, Gali Nuva. When one of us dies, everything we have put into the universe comes back to us. Maybe I want to add a strain of mercy to the mix."

_Don't resent me,_

_And when you're feeling empty,_

_Keep me in your memory _

_Leave out all the rest_

_Leave out all the rest. . . ._

There was a long pause. Then she repeated again, "Why do you want me gone? Or is it that you just want one less Toa here in Karda Nui?"

The Makuta laughed, sounding as bleak, cold, and hollow as a whisper of wind from a cavern of ice. Even as he did, he had to admire the Toa's ingenuity. _Really, she's too good to be simply a Toa._

"You should've been a Makuta, Gali," he told her, really meaning that; it was high praise from someone like him. "You are much too clever to be just a Toa. You Nuva are here to awaken Mata Nui, and you all need to be here to accomplish that mission. But I can tell you this," he said, serious again and trying to make her see what he was telling her, "If you do this, everything you love in this universe will be doomed to a future more horrible than you can ever imagine. Leave here now, and you can keep that future from ever coming true."

_Forgetting_

_All the hurt inside _

_You've learned to hide so well._

_Pretending_

_Someone else can come_

_And save me from myself._

_I can't be who you are . . ._

A long period of silence followed, and Gali seemed to be mulling over what she had said. Krika leaned over her, his breath – probably not very pleasant-smelling, now that he thought about it – filling her face, as he waited for her answer.

Then a blast of light shot dangerously close to his head, and the Makuta lifted his head to see a Toa, much larger than any he had seen before, clad in white and gunmetal armor. The mask, however, told him everything he needed to know about what to do next.

Sadly, regretfully, he turned intangible and left Toa Gali and Takanuva to themselves, abandoning his hope of stopping the Plan.

_When my time comes_

_Forget the wrong that I've done._

_Help me leave behind some _

_Reasons to be missed._

_Don't resent me,_

_And when you're feeling empty,_

_Keep me in your memory._

_Leave out all the rest_

_Leave out all the rest . . ._

"How did you get here – ?"

"Are you alright – ?"

"It's a long story," replied the Toa of Light. "Where are the others? I have news that you need to hear."

Gali glanced at the ground where Krika had vanished into, wondering if he had been telling the truth. Was it true that bring Mata Nui back to wakefulness would be bad to do, not good?

_Nonsense,_ she told herself. _It's your duty, and you need to do it to fulfill your destiny._

"They're back that way," she said aloud. "We have to hurry."

Takanuva nodded, and after some confusion and the arrival of Pohatu, they set off towards the Codrex.

Thus none of them were present to see Krika emerge from the mud, see-through and cold. His eyes gave nothing away, but his movements did, as the Swamp Ghost flew away from his place of mercy.

_Forgetting_

_All the hurt inside _

_You've learned to hide so well._

_Pretending_

_Someone else can come and save me from myself._

_I can't be who you are._

_I can't be who you are . . ._


End file.
